(Have changed writing style; rest of story will be in first person, from Aideen's perspective.)
The tunnels twisted and turned, and it didn't take me long to become disorientated, me being rather directionally challenged and all.
"Where are we?" the slight awe in my voice couldn't have gone unnoticed, damn me and my curiosity! But to the heavily armed girl behind me's credit she did explain a little.
'We're not entirely sure when it was built, but from what we can tell this place is some sort of emergency shelter, built to house and sustain 100's of people for a considerable time, my partner reckons it's Cold War, which is as good a guess as any."
I had more questions, but the tunnel was opening up and I could feel the girl, 'Whistler' I think he called her, tighten up with tension. If I was a gambling girl I'd bet good money that she wasn't too excited about the prospect of me seeing what was up ahead. I could feel the adrenaline begin to surge through me, and had to fight to keep my body relaxed and loose so as not to give away my own building apprehension. The tunnel dropped away to reveal what looked to be an industrial sort of basement. Crates along with metal bracing and structural supports off set with a depressing shade of grey seemed to be the chosen décor.
Just off center to the tunnel on the left was your typical industrial staircase which led to a small platform balcony and another door which looked to be reinforced steel. It seemed like the perfect place for a quiet execution. Faking cool, calm and collected like my life depended on it, which I had no doubt it did, I shot a glance over my shoulder to the left which progressed into a spectacular pivot when my companion was not behind me. I didn't so much as see but rather feel her to my far right so using the spins leverage to throw out my right leg at what I hoped was gun height, I put my body behind the action and was rewarded with what felt like solid contact and the sound of metal hitting the floor. The uncontrolled spin took me another 180 degrees, leaving me facing a wall. Dropping to a crouch just as a bullet hit where my head was I spun out again keeping my leg low and sweeping. I felt her legs go and heard the gun slide from her grip, this time my momentum was controlled and I had her flipped and pinned a second later.
"Bitch" She hissed at me
"Stupid" I hissed back, although unsure as to who it applied to more. Clarification presented itself half a breath later when a cold muzzle came to rest between my shoulder blades.
"Play nice – or I may be forced to do something unpleasant" The man's voice was unmistakable, and so was the threat. I relaxed my grip on her arm and head then stood up slowly, the gun at my back never moving. I stepped away from the sprawled woman giving her room to stand and consequently stepped closer to the owner of the gun.
"You okay?" King asked the now upright girl, after shooting me a deadly look she answered his question with a nod.
The gun still hadn't moved from my back but the tension in the room was beginning to dissolve.
"This is starting to become a habit with you and I" I quipped at King, refering to the fact that everytime we had met so far he'd been pointing a gun at me. I hadn't taken my eyes off Whistler as she bent to retrieve her gun.
"I agree, one more rescue from me and you'll totally be in my debt" King chuckled,
"You…" I gasped. I could not think of a bad enough word, and without thought I swung round to face him. Big mistake.
The gun was now pressed against my left breast, my back was turned on the irate and now re-armed Whistler and my face was just inches from King's very smug one. We were so close we were sharing each others air.
"Yes?" His eyes were wickedly amused
My palms tingled; I needed to hit something, bad! After taking a couple of calming breaths which seemed only to enhance his amusement, I stepped back from the gun and angled myself side on to him keeping my arms loosely by my side in the most non threatening way possible. Now I could see both of them and the gun wasn't pressed into my flesh. That wasn't to say that either of them had relaxed their stances or their guns trained on me.
"I'm sorry' I said to the stone smooth face of Whistler. "I shouldn't have reacted to your movement the way I did"
She acknowledged my apology with a nod and after another couple of breaths relaxed her hold on her gun. But I didn't receive any apologies in return. Geez, it's not like I almost shot her head off!
I had a glance at King, and saw that he too had dropped his arms and the offending weapon was trained safely on the floor. He saw my look and gave me a wink. Scowling slightly I focused back on Whistler.
"Shall we continue with the tour?" King suggested breaking what could have become an awkward silence.
He led us up the stairs, with Whistler behind me gun trained at my back.
Trusting lot aren't they.
Through the door and onto another balcony, but this time the room was a lot cozier. Unlike the basement room we had just left, this felt less like a factory and more like an enormous sized loft. Boardwalks criss crossed along the roof joining staircases from the 2 far corners of the room with the balcony we were on. The room was warmly lit and much better decorated then its neighbor. There were a couple of beaten up comfy looking couches haphazardly gathered around a TV in one corner, and what looked like compact archery range in another. Instead of just concrete on the floor there were lush rugs under the lounge area, what looked to be the dining/meeting area and the small library, which was made up of four large book cases, two of which were resting against the back wall underneath the balcony and the other two were free standing either side of them.
I couldn't help but give an appreciative whistle.
"Nice huh?" King smiled warmly at my impressed expression. "It's got everything a person needs, even coffee!"
I raised my eyebrow at the last part, but gathered it was a private joke.
